Alaskan Cruise - Juneau

Juneau was our first port, and it took us nearly three days to get there. The night before we arrived the seas were very, very rough. The captain announced the next morning that he'd actually slowed the ship's speed down because of the high seas, and because of that we were late getting into port.

Needless to say, it was good to see land!

I will give credit to my mom now for the photos in this post. It was rainy and cold in Juneau, and instead of capturing our day with my camera, I was pretty busy keeping Michaela and myself dry. She was not a happy camper...

All of our shore excursions had to be rearranged because of our late arrival. We were originally scheduled to see Mendenhall Glacier and Glacier Gardens, but because of the last minute changes we actually had a third stop added to our tour - the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery.

Here, Dad and Michaela encountered some wildlife:

Of course there were also gazillions of salmon at the hatchery, but they aren't as much fun to take pictures with!

At the Mendenhall Glacier site, we walked out to see the glacier and then went into the visitor center:

Our final stop was at Glacier Gardens. By this time Michaela was really cold and crabby. I think there is a very interesting story behind the development of these gardens, but I couldn't really pay attention to our guide because I was managing Michaela's behavior.  (Just keeping it real, friends. I was pretty crabby by then, too.)

Yes, those are upside down trees with their roots holding potted plants. Mom caught a nice shot of the bald eagle that landed near it's ginormous nest on the property.

We were driven up a road to a viewing platform that looked out over parts of Juneau. I'm sure on a clear day it's really a beautiful view, but today it was just wet and cold. After a couple of minutes, I headed back to the tram for the drive down the mountain.

By the time our excursion was complete, we didn't have much time left before we were required to get back on the ship. So, we didn't get to explore Juneau at all. Besides we were too wet and tired to do so. A glass of red wine helped warm me from the inside out, and after dinner we hit the sack.

Next time, Skagway...